The only thing that stops the dust is the rain. It’s a sweet reprieve, but there is no middle ground. The land is either as dry as the Betty Ford clinic, or as wet as the ocean floor. Everything can be seen from the ridge overlooking Armadillo as John Marston gently bounces along atop...

Grounded Burst: A Level 1 Grounded Burst removes a the player from the enemy team's minimap. Level 2 removes your entire team from the enemy minimap. At Level 3, this burst actually puts false information on the enemy's minimap.

Slippery Character Burst (the preorder bonus above): At Level 1, this burst drops a smoke bomb and gives you unlimited stamina to escape. Level 2 does the same thing, with unlimited stamina until death and a flashbang to blind pursuing enemies. Level 3 gives this burst to everyone on your team.

The Trigger Happy burst gives you better guns. The Big Dog burst gives you more health. In-game items bought with in-game currency can nullify some of the burst effects.

[Original Post] Rockstar Games has been intentionally silent on the types of abilities players will be able to use to counteract bullet time in Max Payne 3's multiplayer. While a previous multiplayer gameplay trailer detailed the way bullet time would only affect enemies in your line of sight, more burst abilities were teased for a later date.

GameStop has been generous enough to detail one of those abilities in advance, offering up the Slippery Character Burst, in addition to a weapon and a gadget as part of a preorder bonus.

An e-mail sent out to PowerUp Rewards members details an exclusive bonus at the retail giant called the Silent Killer Multiplayer Loadout Pack... although some of these aren't so silent.

The burst in question apparently lets players "easily escape from any firefight." We can assume that the burst will give players enhanced speed to move quickly out of an area and possibly counteract the effects of bullet time. The pack also comes with a rocket launcher and the Listening Device that allows players to hear an enemy from far away.

Max Payne 3 is set for release on Xbox 360 and PS3 May 15th. We'll continue to bring the latest in the lead up to the game's launch.